Man chained to hospital bed after leg amputation due to bounced cheques

Sharjah: Police said they will help a 50-year-old man with an amputated leg owing to diabetes, who has been arrested and chained to his hospital bed over cases of bounced cheques.

In a bizarre twist to the tale, just when the man’s amputated leg was about to be buried, police came to know that he was wanted in cases of fraud. A senior Sharjah Police official told Gulf News the man, a Palestinian, will be offered all possible help.

The man, Jamal Al Muhtasib, whose UAE visa has already expired, has, meanwhile, lost his residency status in Occupied Jerusalem owing to his long absence from the area. He is unemployed and has been surviving in UAE on charity. In 2008, his passport was seized by Dubai Police after a bank had filed a case against him.

Al Muhtasib has studied international business law in the US and knows four languages. He came to the UAE from Occupied Jerusalem in 2002 to start a car rental business here.

However, he ran into trouble after the car he was driving met with an accident in Sharjah, resulting in the death of one person. He was jailed for six months until he managed to borrow money from banks and pay blood money to the victim’s family.

After the accident — and despite being severely ill — he could not return to his family because a travel ban had been placed on him owing to unpaid loans of Dh14,000 and Dh17,000 with two banks.

Al Muhtasib said his biggest fear now is whether he will be able to meet his family ever again. His only wish now is to be reunited with his mother. “I want to go back to Occupied Jerusalem ... to my home,” he said.

He was admitted to Al Kuwaiti Hospital several times this year for amputation of his fingers and toes after gangrene had set in. He told Gulf News he was hospitalised again, 15 days ago, following complaints of severe pain in his hands, leg and kidneys. He lost sight in one eye and a part of his right leg below the knee had to be amputated. “There is little sensation in my left leg and it is partially paralysed,” he said.

Following the surgery on May 14, as part of routine procedure, doctors asked him to sign certain documents to bury part of the leg that had been amputated. The documents were meant for Sharjah Police, municipality and the hospital.

It was then that police found out that Al Muhtasib was wanted in cases involving bounced cheques. He had also been sentenced to five months in jail, in absentia, in five cases.

“I was arrested and chained to my bed. A policeman now stands guard at the door,” he said. “I have kidney problems as well. Yet, I’ve been handcuffed and chained. I wet my underpants because there’s no one to help me.”

Hanan, his elder sister, has come to the UAE from Occupied Jerusalem on a 15-day visa to help her brother. “I want to take him with me. He is our only brother,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Hanan said her brother is not a murderer and the sum he owes in bounced cheques is small. “Some cheques were issued for Dh4,000 and others for Dh8,000. I understand he is wanted by the police, but his health should be taken into consideration. I was surprised to see him chained to his bed,” she said.

Hanan said she does not have full access to her brother. “I borrowed money to see him. I will be here for only a few days, but I am not being allowed to see him. It breaks my heart,” she said. Hanan claimed she had to sneak into the room to feed her brother. “My mother is old. She has heart problems. She wants to see her son.”

Police officials said Al Muhtasib is under arrest and prison timings apply. Visits are allowed on Mondays and Fridays at 4pm for 15 minutes. A senior official with Sharjah Police said according to the law, the man has to be arrested and chained because he had been jailed in absentia and there are cases pending against him.

Brigadier Abdullah Mubarak Al Dukhan, Deputy Director of Sharjah Police, told Gulf News policemen have to guard prisoners. “If a prisoner is transferred from jail to hospital, he or she will have to be handcuffed in hospital. It also depends on the nature of the case against the person,” he said.

He said police could consider his case and his sister has been told to meet Sharjah Police authorities so that her brother could be offered some assistance.